The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of plum tree broadly characterized by its regular and productive bearing of dark red to dark purplish-red fruit which has a heavy, blue-gray bloom, and ripens late in the season, approximately with the Roysum plum (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 2,619).
The Roysum plum tree is well known as being a regular bearer of medium sized, freestone fruit having a skin of red to blue hue, and having good shipping and keeping qualities. The desirability of the Roysum plum is further enhanced by the relative absence of competition from other plums due to the late ripening of its fruit.
Important among those factors contributing to the commercial success of fruit varieties, and in particular plums, are the appearance of the fruit and the period in the season when the fruit can be marketed. An attractive, symmetrical plum obviously more readily gains market acceptance than a plum not exhibiting these desirable characteristics. Such a plum commands a relatively greater share of the market if it can be harvested late enough in the season to avoid direct competition with other, better known plums having generally similar appearances. Therefore, it has long been recognized as desirable to provide a plum tree which bears fruit having dark red to purplish-red skin, a symmetrical shape and satisfactory size, and which ripens late in the season, remaining firm and ripe on the tree for a substantial period in order that its fruit may be harvested at an optimum time.